Certified As An Integral Coach

“How can I best help people?” Have you ever asked yourself that question?

This has been long-held question that has spurred my quest for inner and outer development for as long as I can remember. In my youth, I wanted to be like James Bond, someone who goes on covert missions around the world to protect my country. Then in college, fascinations with Indiana Jones sparked my interest in unveiling the greatest secrets of foreign anthropological artifacts. With a newly earned Global Studies bachelor’s degree, I tasted the lives of corporations, start-ups, teaching, and monasticism, each one refining my palette of what it means for *me* to best serve the world with my unique set of gifts and challenges.

Browsing a San Anselmo bookstore in 2011, I found a book called Personal Power by Tony Robbins, life and business coach extraordinaire. While many think of Tony as a motivational speaker, he considers himself to be a coach, someone who helps people evoke long-term, self-correcting excellence in themselves. Because I love teaching and counseling, and because the role of a coach strongly appealed to me, I thought, “no matter where I am in the world, no matter what I do for a living, I would love to be able to utilize the best skills and techniques to train people on finding their own true personal fulfillment”.

Later in the year, I also began learning about Ken Wilber and integral studies. Utilizing all of the world’s information in every area of humanity, the integral movement classifies tools and techniques in an easy-to-understand language to help people develop themselves to be as compassionate and wise as humanly possible.

Then, serendipitously bridging these two new passions, I found New Ventures West, an Integral Coaching Certification Program. Coaching is not just about the mind, but rather integrating kind awareness with cognitive functioning, somatics, relationships, spirituality, emotions, etc.

Accepted into their 2013 cohort with a generous scholarship, I spent one year being coached on my edges, meditating, journaling, reading, writing book summaries, and coaching several guinea pig clients ten sessions each. Now, as of last week, I am fully certified to coach people who have a challenge or issue, whether it’s personal or professional. As I create MindfulnessExercises.com during the next few months, I will begin accepting new coaching clients on an ad-hoc basis.

It feels incredibly empowering to be trained in a curriculum of proven methodologies and techniques to help people become more authentic, powerful, compassionate, and alive.

“New Ventures West pioneered Integral Coaching — an evolving evolving methodology intended to be the most comprehensive response to human life. Its practitioners reach deeply into the past, gathering wisdom from East and West, while simultaneously staying current with the frontiers of new discovery in cognitive science, genetics, and other disciplines.

Our certified coaches build competence, foster personal fulfillment and open up possibilities by drawing upon the knowledge of what’s unchanging about human life and taking into account that which is particular about our times. To be useful, of course, coaching must be eminently practical and be helpful in both the immediate and the long term. Coaching can only accomplish all this when it’s practiced by people who are highly skilled, experienced, and models of what they represent. Our program, the Professional Coaching Course, produces such people.” – http://www.newventureswest.com/display.aspx?catid=11,17,25&pageid=209

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Author:Sean Fargo

About Sean Fargo
At the peak of his career as Director of Asian Operations for AsiaEXP, Sean Fargo traded in his worldly aspirations to explore the inner life by ordaining as a Buddhist monk for two years in the Thai Theravada tradition.
Since disrobing in 2010, he has supported thousands of meditation practitioners at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, facilitated mindfulness classes in San Quentin and Solano State Prisons, and has lead several workshops at Inward Bound Mindfulness Education teen retreats.
A dedicated student of spirituality and mindfulness, he has studied with Jack Kornfield, Analayo Bhikkhu, Phillip Moffitt, and many other teachers in the US and Asia. His teaching path is guided by Guy Armstrong, Senior Teachers Council member for both Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society.
Founder of MindfulnessExercises.com, he offers secular mindfulness e-courses with certifications available for personal and professional skill sets.
Enrolled in New Ventures West's Coaching Certification Program, Sean expects to certify as an Integral Life Coach in November 2014. He graduated with honors from University of California at Santa Barbara’s Global Studies Department in 2000.
Sean offers private instruction to adults, teens, companies, and organizations. Contact Sean Fargo for more info.